


Fight Me

by MeganAnne



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Based on a Tumblr Post, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Pre-Relationship, There's A Tag For That
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:20:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23541475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeganAnne/pseuds/MeganAnne
Summary: Carlos knows better than to run into a burning building. Hell, they cover that in the first day of training. As a police officer at a fire, there are three rules: control the scene, communicate with dispatch as needed, and leave the rest of the insanity to the firefighters.Except it’s his day off and the rules don’t seem to apply today.“That’s too long. I’m going in.”“Officer Reyes, do NOT—”And that’s when he breaks the last rule. He hangs up on 911.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Comments: 15
Kudos: 266





	Fight Me

Carlos is trying to enjoy his first day off in a week. He’s just finished getting groceries and is taking a shortcut through a residential neighborhood when he sees it.

Smoke.

Too much smoke.

He grabs his phone and accelerates.

“911. What’s your emergency?”

“This is officer Carlos Reyes. Badge number 47621.” He waits for the dispatcher to verify his information and tries not to wince when he takes a turn too fast and his tires squeal. Last thing he needs is to be pulled over now.

“Yes, Officer Reyes. What is your emergency?”

“There’s a house fire in Travis Heights.”

“Address?”

“Give me a minute.” Tires squeal again and he can see the flames now. He slams on the brakes until he spots a house number. “5400 block of Old Travis River Lane.”

“Okay. I’ve dispatched the 126. They’re about 7 to 10 minutes out.”

“Seven to ten minutes? Are they crawling here?”

“There’s an accident on the 45 and it’s rush hour, Officer Reyes. They’re the closest station, but it’s going to take time.”

“Yeah.” He throws his car in park several houses down from the fire and runs towards it. “Time.” That’s when he hears the barking and the screaming. “ _Shit._ ”

“Officer Reyes?”

“There’s at least one person inside. Sounds like a child. Possibly a dog too. How far out is the 126?”

“Still at least 4 minutes.”

Carlos knows better than to run into a burning building. Hell, they cover that in the first day of training. As a police officer at a fire, there are three rules: control the scene, communicate with dispatch as needed, and leave the rest of the insanity to the firefighters.

Except it’s his day off and the rules don’t seem to apply today.

“That’s too long. I’m going in.”

“Officer Reyes, do NOT—”

And that’s when he breaks the last rule. He hangs up on 911. His sergeant is going to be _pissed._ Assuming Carlos survives of course.

Carlos runs up to the house and bangs on the front door. “Austin police! Can you hear me?” All he hears in response is more screaming and barking. He takes a brief moment to pray that the deadbolt isn’t engaged and gives the door a few solid kicks before it finally breaks open. A mostly black pit bull runs out the front door, still barking, but then quickly runs back inside before returning and barking at Carlos.

“All right, Lassie.” He pulls his t-shirt up to cover his nose, and takes a deep breath. “Lead the way, pup.”Crouching low, he follows the dog inside.

The first thing that hits him isn’t the heat or even the smoke, but the noise. The dog is right in front of him and still barking, but Carlos can barely hear it. All he hears is the roaring of the fire a thousand times louder more terrifying than he ever expected.

Just to his left, there’s a deafening crack and, before he has a chance to react, he feels teeth on his leg. His world seems to shift and he’s on his back staring at the ceiling. Or where he assumes the ceiling is. All he can see is smoke and he can’t breathe. Next to him, right where he’d been standing not even 30 seconds ago is a large, burning ceiling fan.

Rolling onto his hands and knees, Carlos tries to get his bearings and manages to spot the dog a few feet away in the corner of whatever the hell room they’re in. He crawls towards the dog and notices it’s not alone. Cowering in the corner is a girl that can’t be older than 9.

Carlos forces himself to stand and ignores the rush of lightheadedness. He moves to the girl and scoops her up. She struggles for a moment and he manages a hoarse “police” and the struggling stops. Turning, he almost trips over the damn dog and that’s when Carlos realizes just how screwed he is. He doesn’t know which way is out, the smoke is getting thicker by the second, and, now that he has the girl, the dog seems content to stand by his side.

The dog.

“Lassie. Outside.” The dog seems to perk up at the word. “Outside. Let’s go. Outside.”

The dog starts moving and Carlos stumbles after it. Finally, _finally,_ Carlos sees light. He clutches the girl tighter and rushes towards it. He almost face-plants off the front step, but is stopped by a solid hand on his shoulder. Someone tries taking the girl from him and instinct has him struggling against it. “Hey, hey. We got you. C’mon.” Carlos looks up and finds himself staring into really, really pretty green eyes.

“Fight me.”

Green eyes grins at him. “Maybe later, but, right now, you’ve gotta let us take care of y’all and the fire.”

Before Carlos can answer, an oxygen mask is shoved over his face and he’s hustled over to the ambulance where Michelle stands with a carefully blank look on her face. He sits on the end of the ambulance and Michelle begins speaking softly to the girl. Thankful that he’s not being yelled at yet, Carlos hands the girl over to Michelle, closes his eyes, and focuses on trying to take deep breaths.

He’s not sure how much time has passed when something slams into him and almost knocks him off the rig. Carlos looks up to see Michelle glaring at him. He removes the mask and asks, “Was that really necessary?” Michelle raises one eyebrow and points to Carlos’s right. He looks and grinning at him is the pit bull. “Oh. Not you trying to knock me over.”

“Nope.” Michelle pats the spot next to Carlos and the dog leaps up and gives Carlos a lick across his face. Michelle snorts. “Well, at least you have one friend not pissed at you.”

Carlos eyes Michelle warily. “You gonna yell at me?”

“After I make sure you’re not actually dying, yeah.”

“Not dying would be good.” Michelle flicks his wrist once and then starts taking his pulse. “How’s the girl?”

“Harper. She’s okay. She was supposed to be at a friend’s house, but she snuck out and headed home. Friend’s mom called Harper’s mom so she was already on her way. Mom arrived just after us.” Michelle places the oxygen mask back over his face and continues her examination. “Why are your pants torn?”

“Huh?” Carlos looks down and sees that, yeah, his pants are torn and he has a pretty wicked bruise forming. “Oh. The dog bit me.”

“Lassie bit you?”

“Lassie?” The dog’s tail starts thumping; excited to be part of the conversation.

“Yeah. That’s the dog’s name.” Carlos stares at her before he starts laughing hysterically and he’s not sure if it’s the smoke inhalation, the adrenaline let down, or what, but he just can’t stop. Eventually, the laughing turns into coughing. It takes a few moments, but he manages to mostly get a hold of himself after hacking up a glob of black gunk. Michelle does not look impressed. “Cute. Real cute.” He tries to grin at her, but she’s busy shoving the oxygen mask back over his face. “What’d you do to make the dog bite you?”

“Was standing in the wrong place. Lassie yanked me to the side right before a ceiling fan came crashing down.”

“Good dog.”

“Very good. Lassie also led me to the girl and guided us out.” It’s Michelle’s turn to stare this time.

“Are you shitting me right now?”

“I was even calling her Lassie. Had to stop myself from asking if Timmy was in the well.”

Michelle rolls her eyes at him and begins petting Lassie. “What you did was really fucking stupid.”

“I know.” They sit together quietly for a few moments. “I’m sorry I scared you.”

Someone yells for Blake and she smiles at him. “Yeah, but you’re not sorry you did it.” She shakes her head at him. “You should be fine. Do me a favor and just sit here and keep the oxygen on for a while. You’re gonna have a hell of an adrenaline crash. My shift is basically over. I’ll see if I can drive you home when we’re done here.”

“Thanks, Chelle.” She waves him off as she jogs towards the firefighters. Carlos takes a moment, makes sure his mask is secure, relaxes against the wall of the rig, and closes his eyes.

He thinks he must have dozed off for a moment because, when he opens his eyes again, Lassie is happily slurping at a bowl of water.

“Here.” An open bottle of water is placed in his hand and Carlos finds the fireman with the pretty green eyes is right in front of him. Without thinking, Carlos goes to take a drink.

And promptly hits his mask and spills half the water down his shirt.

He hears the fireman laugh before asking, “Need some help?”

Carlos sends a weak glare at green eyes and his response comes without thought. “Fight me.”

“Nah. You’d totally kick my ass.” The fireman gives Carlos a bright grin. “I’m TK Strand by the way. Cap wanted me to check on Lassie and Blake wanted someone to keep an eye on you.” TK reaches up and removes Carlos’s mask and offers him another bottle of water. TK waits for Carlos to take a sip before continuing. “Dispatch is pissed at you. Most of the team was too. We figured you’d be another person we’d have to rescue.”

“Yeah, well. I was first on scene. Had to try to help.”

TK snorts and takes a drink from his own water. “Hey, no judgement here. I got shot on a call and then tore my stitches open while on medical leave.” Carlos is openly staring at TK now. He knows it, but can’t seem to stop. TK notices his stare and simply smiles and shrugs. “It was during the solar flare. There was a bus crash and I had to try to help. So, yeah. I’m not about to judge you for your stupid decision. I’ve made plenty of stupid ass decisions myself.”

Michelle reappears at that moment and Carlos is glad because he’s already fucking _gone_ over TK and his green eyes and he’s told the guy to fight him. Twice. He’s embarrassed himself enough for today.

“Ready to go, Carlos?”

“Yeah. Car’s parked that way.”

“You go ahead. I want to clean up a couple things, but I’ll catch up.”

Carlos nods and heaves himself to his feet. He sways slightly and TK’s hand is on his shoulder once more. Carlos mumbles out a quiet thanks before patting Lassie goodbye and heading over towards his car. He knows it’s cowardly, but he can’t bring himself to look at TK. Can’t stand to face down the guy that he already has a huge crush on. The guy that, despite saying he won’t judge, probably thinks Carlos is absolutely insane.

Carlos manages to make it to the car and plops into the passenger seat. He doesn’t usually allow himself time to mope, but it’s been a weird day and he’s exhausted. Moping is allowed today.

It’s another ten minutes until Michelle arrives and she is smirking at him like there’s no tomorrow. Carlos knows that look. Carlos is afraid of that look. Last time she had that look, she convinced him to do way too many tequila shots with her and then had to break up a bar fight that she started. He got a black eye for his trouble and had to convince the cops that showed up to not arrest Michelle all while avoiding a drunk and disorderly himself.

She still has that look when she shoves a water bottle at him. “TK wanted me to give you this.”

Startled, Carlos looks at the bottle. Written on the side in bold sharpie is a phone number and two words:

Fight me?

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written fic in FOREVER so please excuse my rustiness. You can also find me on [tumblr](https://tilyouseethelight.tumblr.com)


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